


Unnecessary Rickstory

by Sarosia



Category: Rick and Morty
Genre: Backstory, Death, Depressing, Gen, beth's mom - Freeform, unity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-30
Updated: 2017-07-30
Packaged: 2018-12-08 22:24:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11655942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sarosia/pseuds/Sarosia
Summary: Unnecessary backstory creepin' up on Rick in spite of his attempts to escape. Damn memories.





	Unnecessary Rickstory

Rick was on his way by Beth's room when he heard the sniffling. He paused, knowing with everything he had that he'd regret investigating this. Except for the parts of him that would regret _not_ checking it out.

 

Beth was sitting on the floor at the foot of the bed. There was an open box sitting next to her and a fan of photographs laid out in front of her. Rick had searched every inch of this house and he hadn't been able to find that box even though he knew it had to exist somewhere. She wasn't Rick. She wouldn't have gotten rid of everything the way he'd had to.

 

From where he stood, the woman in all of the pictures had brown hair. Of course. That was the only mother Beth had. There wasn't anything for Rick to fear here. Just the fake.

 

“Hey, uh, you know if _Ger-urp-ry_ took anything of mine from the garage when he left? Cause I've got a few things missing and he's the – urp! - main suspect. I can feel his grubby little fingers in there.”

 

Beth sniffed again, wiping at her face before looking up. She shook her head. “I don't know. What do you care, anyway? If he took anything, he'll just end up blowing himself up.”

 

“I _care_ because I don't like people touching my stuff. Especially _Gerrys_.”

 

“Dad...do you ever...” Beth shook her head, staring at the photos. “Do you ever think about Mom? If you could have worked things out?”

 

“I try not to. Hypotheticals can lead you down some pretty dark roads. People evolve. People disappear. People die. Nothing anyone can do about any of those. Best to just – urp! - eat something and watch some Interdimensional Cable! No?”

 

Beth stared at him and shook her head. “No...watch some Ball Fondlers for me.”

 

Rick shrugged. “Nah. I'm not feeling like it's the best time to turn this into a three-quel.”

 

“Hey, Morty!” Rick burst into Morty's room. “Let's go on an adventure! An adventure, Morty! I wanna go on an adventure!”

 

Morty kept both hands beneath the covers, which looked like they had been hastily pulled up to his neck. “Aw, geez, Rick...I don't think so.”

 

“Seriously, Morty?! You're gonna choose...gonna choose banging one out over coming with me?! Y-y-you can do that anytime! We have the whole universe at our feet, Morty!”

 

Morty swallowed audibly. “Yeah. Yeah, I'd rather stay here. Could you...could you go, now?”

 

“What, you got a finger in your butt there, Morty? Clean yourself up and let's go!”

 

“Rick...go adventure yourself, okay? See you later. And shut the door.”

 

“Aw, Morty...really disappointed here, Morty. You really disappointed me.”

 

“That's not helping!”

 

“Summer!” Rick looked around the empty room. Right. She was probably at her new job or with some boy. Teenage things, am I right?

 

Rick hit the garage with a fury. He dug through everything, just trying to find something he could work on right now before it could happen. “No...no...no! Goddammit! I'm not letting this become some kind of flashback, character-building backstory bullshit. No!”

 

But Rick couldn't stop this. It was coming. It was coming on hard like the morning after you have drunken sex with your cousin. It was coming on like a vortex powered by love and hate and shame that was coming to make a huge fucking jizz-covered mess all over his life. Again.

 

Rick had been thinking about her since she'd shown up in the Brainalyzer thing. That threw him off for half a second before he could twist the memory to a more predictable ending.

 

Rick jumped when he saw what was in his hand. Shaped like an egg with a line of buttons on the side. He released it and it hit the counter, rolling a couple inches before stopping.

 

This was bad. He could feel it happening. Here it comes...

 

#_#_#

 

Rick opened a portal straight into the garage. The _right_ garage this time. Months of screwing around and he was still far from getting the hang of the portal gun.

 

Home, but he wouldn't be here long. He just wanted to quietly grab a few things and head out again. There was no way he could face –

 

“Who are you?” Something was wrong with her voice. There was a distant-sounding echo to her words.

 

Rick turned to face his wife. Was she even still his wife or had she had him declared dead? Divorced _in absentia_? Her face went slack. “Rick? Is that...is that really you?”

 

Rick scratched his neck nervously. “Hey...guess who's back in town? Not staying, but – ”

 

“So you're leaving again?” The echo got worse. It sounded more like there were several Dianes speaking at once.

 

“Is everything okay with you? You sound...different.”

 

“I tried to find you.” Half of the voices sounded angry while the others were sad. “You just left...without saying _anything_...”

 

“I know, Baby, I'm sorry about that. But I had to test the portal gun and...things just kicked off from there. You have no idea the kinds of things I've seen. Once it's a little more stable, I can take you and Beth, show you – ”

 

“I see everything.” The voices lined up on the side of anger. “Every me in every dimension, we are all together.”

 

“How is that possible? Did you do something? Touch my stuff?”

 

Diane's eyes went to his workbench and Rick ran his own over every item there. It didn't look like anything had been touched except...

 

Rick pointed at the inter-dimensional communications device he'd been working on before he left. Once he'd determined that there were other dimensions alongside theirs, Rick had started working on a way to communicate with the others. It had been a bust.

 

“You...used that? It wasn't functional when I left.”

 

“I started messing with things, trying to find a way to contact you. Tell you to come home. That I'm sorry for what I did to us. Beth's father...”

 

“What did it do to you? I can fix whatever it was.” Rick's hands itched to do something – anything – to make this right.

 

“All these thoughts...emotions...I can see...through all of me...” Diane's eyes seemed to fade a little like she was looking into a different room than where they stood. “I don't sleep anymore because there's so much...noise...”

 

“Baby, where's Beth?”

 

“I called Sarah. She's been taking care of Beth. They're upstairs now. No...” Diane shook her head. “Beth's in the bath. I should...bed...park...dead. Beth's dead. My daughter's dead!” She screamed.

 

Rick grabbed her. “Focus on me. My voice. Come back here.”

 

“Rick...so much noise. Sometimes there's so much noise...”

 

“I know,” Rick held her close. “I designed that device to be able to communicate with the other dimensions. It must have turned you into a communicator, instead.”

 

“You can fix me?” Diane whispered against him.

 

“Of course. I'm Rick!”

 

Rick pulled the cot out from between the desk and the wall. It was where he slept when he was too deep in a project to actually go upstairs. Even before he left, he'd seen more of this cot than their bed.

 

Diane sat on it while he dug through his pockets until he found a little paper packet of sleeping pills from Alpha Blue. She took the pill without question.

 

“You're not gonna leave again, are you?” She said, her voice growing faint as she fought to stay awake another minute.

 

Rick pulled the ratty blanket he kept in here over her. “Never. Not without you and Beth.”

 

Diane smiled. “I missed you so much.”

 

When she was completely out, Rick slipped from the garage into the house. He stopped at Beth's door, watching the little girl sleep. She looked just like her mother. He wasn't sure it would be so easy loving her if she'd ended up looking like the guy.

 

Rick squashed the flare of anger. He needed to help Diane, now. The next room was theirs and the one at the end was for guests. His sister was asleep and didn't even twitch as he came up next to the bed. “Sarah.”

 

She mumbled.

 

This time, he shook her, too. “Sarah!”

 

Smack! Her hand caught him right across the face. Rick straightened and kicked the mattress. “I deserve that.”

 

“Damn right you do. What the _fuck_ are you doing?” Sarah hissed at him.

 

“I need to talk to you.”

 

“Do you have any idea what Diane's been going through since you skipped out? And I'm stuck taking care of my niece and apologizing for my brother. The brother that's always claiming to be a _genius_.”

 

Rick sank down on the mattress. “I know. But I can fix this. I can fix all of this. I just need – ”

 

“You shouldn't have come back here, Rick. Things were finally starting to get back to normal and you're just going to blow it up again, aren't you?”

 

“I can fix this. I need your help. I have Diane in the garage. Keep Beth away from the garage. Keep her occupied. Do whatever you have to.”

 

Sarah nodded. “Okay.”

 

Rick made it partly down the hall. Passing Beth's door, he heard, “Daddy?”

 

Rick froze. The girl was sitting up, staring at him. Rick smiled. “Hey, Sweetie, you should be asleep.”

 

“I heard something.”

 

“You're just dreaming. You should go back to sleep.”

 

“Oh.” Her face fell. “I love you.”

 

Rick winked at her, making her smile. “Love you, too, Sweetie. Good night.”

 

“'night.”

 

In the garage, Diane was still asleep. Now it was time to get to work.

 

#_#_#

 

Rick opened a portal and jumped through. That's enough of that. More than enough, actually. Too much.

 

He stepped up to the bar. The bartender was some kind of roach man with what looked like plant leaves growing out of his back. Or maybe they were just attached to his clothes. Who the fuck knows or cares?

 

Rick pounded a fist down on the bar. “Look, I'm gonna tell you this – urp – once. Whatever alcoholic shit you've got going on here, I want it. And I want it brought on a conveyor belt straight to the table,” Rick pointed at a corner where the table had just been left empty. “Keep 'em coming and don't stop. Got that?”

 

The bartender gave him what could have been a nod and Rick made a beeline for the table. Two drinks and it started happening again.

 

#_#_#

 

“I can't...I can't keep doing this. Living like this. My head is splitting.” Diane said. “There's too many of them. Maybe a hospital...”

 

“Hospital isn't going to do shit,” Rick snapped. “I'll make this better. I'm the only one that can.”

 

“Stop.” When Rick didn't, she got to her feet. Diane wrapped her arms around him. “Please stop, Rick. Promise me...you'll stay this time. Stay with Beth.”

 

“I think I've got it. This'll...this'll be the one. It's gonna reverse the effects, cutting you off from the others. You'll be this Diane, in this reality.” Rick turned, pushing the egg into her hands. “Same button.”

 

Diane squeezed it, but didn't push the button. “Promise me. Whatever happens, you'll stay with Beth.”

 

“I promise, okay? Now will you hit the damn button and – ”

 

Diane's body was disintegrated in a fine spray of blood. The flecks joined with the air and were gone. Nothing remained. No mess. Not one piece of Diane. The lemon hit the floor and make a crackling sound before rolling to bump Rick's toe.

 

Rick stood there for a long time. Slowly, one side of his mouth lifted into a smile and he started laughing. “I can get another one.”

 

He picked up the portal gun. He could still make this right. He'd fucked up, but he could make it right.

 

#_#_#

 

“Ugh...what the fuck is this? Am I having a stroke? Is that what this is? Whatever the fuck, cut it out!” Rick slapped his head, gaining – and then losing – the attention of the two teabags with legs sitting at the next table.

 

He grabbed the next bottle that came to the table and chugged as much as he could in one go. Rick rubbed his mouth and belched. “There. Story's over. Flip the – _goddammit_.”

 

#_#_#

 

Dozens of realities. Diane was gone. Every. Single. One.

 

Rick was ragged. Unshaven. Torn, stained clothes. He felt like he'd been shit from a Gorgaxll and he hadn't showered in who knows when. Certainly not God because if there was one out there, he'd have found him already and kicked him right in his wrinkly old man balls.

 

Not one Diane.

 

The sun was coming up. Rick had sat himself on the curb in front of the house. He didn't know how to face his sister and Beth with the news that Diane really was gone.

 

“Rick? That is you, isn't it?”

 

Rick barely had the strength to raise his head. A man stood by him, overweight and with about as much scruffy growth on his face as Rick did. He looked like he'd come from some construction site. “Yeah, what do you want? Has it suddenly become illegal to look like a bum on a curb?”

 

“This is going to be hard to believe, but it's me. I'm in here.”

 

“Go home, you're drunk. We're outside. There's no 'in.'” Rick waved at him.

 

The man rolled his eyes and something about it was so familiar. He grabbed Rick's arm and hauled him to his feet. Rick tried to pull free. “Hey, buddy – ”

 

“It's _me_. Diane. It's all of us.”

 

Rick jerked his arm out of the man's grip. “Get the fuck off me! That's really sick, you know that?!”

 

He swallowed. “I don't know how to prove this to you...I never saw Jack again after it happened. He never had any idea that I got pregnant.”

 

Rick's knees dropped him to the asphalt. “How...?”

 

“That...thing...did make the noise stop. By joining all of us together. Every Diane from every conceivable timeline. We are...one, now. A united Diane.”

 

“Diane...you're a...you're a fat guy.”

 

“This is just one of me. I have several bodies, this is just the man I've had watching the house for you. I just wanted to say goodbye.”

 

“Goodbye? Where are you going?” Rick got to his feet.

 

“What I am now...it's not good. I want to consume. I want to...assimilate. Rick, the longer I'm here, I want to be inside every living thing on Earth. I won't do that, so I've only been here to tell you to take care of Beth.”

 

“Then what?”

 

Construction Diane shrugged. “I'll leave everyone I'm in right now and head up. The universe is a big place.”

 

“Will you ever come back?”

 

“No. That's the other thing. I've already begun to cut memories away so that I can leave here and never come back. Me being here is not safe for anyone. I won't endanger Beth or anyone else. Promise me.”

 

Rick nodded. “I promise.”

 

Construction Diane leaned close. “I know I don't have any right to ask this – ”

 

Rick closed the gap between them. Construction Diane's lips were dry and rough. His beard scratched against Rick's. A cool wind picked up around them.

 

_Mama always told me don't you run..._

 

Rick stumbled back and his ass hit the ground when the man hit him right in the face. Construction Guy stared down at him in a mix of confusion and horror. “What...what the fuck do you think you're doing?”

 

Rick smiled, still feeling the breeze. He started laughing and the man just stomped off.

 

_You're gonna hurt someone..._

 

Rick stood and headed into the house. He kept out of sight until he could get Sarah alone. “Where is Diane? Where have you been? Why...what's wrong?”

 

Rick was still smiling. “I need you to do something for me, Sarah. Something big.”

 

“Where's Diane?” She asked again.

 

Rick shook his head. “Gone. I need you to take Beth outside when she gets up. Go to the park or somewhere. Keep her busy for a while.”

 

“Rick...”

 

“Just do it. I've got some shit I've got to do in the house before I go.”

 

_Sharp edges have consequences  
I guess that I had to find out for myself_

 

Rick went through every room of the house, gathering up all the pictures that contained Diane. He really had his work set out for him.

 

_Should’ve played it safer from the start_  
_Loved you like a house of cards_  
 _Let it fall apart_

After that, he found every document with her name on it. Beth's birth certificate. Harder to forge, but easy enough for him to do.

 

_But all the things I couldn’t understand_  
_Never could’ve planned_  
 _They made me who I am_

 

#_#_#

 

Rick had gone from chugging to sipping to barely nursing bottles. He wished he could obliterate his memory as easily as she had.

 

_We all fall down_  
_We live somehow_  
 _We learn what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger_

He couldn't even get rid of that faulty communicator.

 

Rick tensed. The communicator. He'd left it out in the open like an idiot. If Beth...

 

_Sharp edges have consequences  
Now every scar is a story I can tell _

 

Rick fired up a portal and dove into it. The communicator was lying exactly where he'd left it. Rick grabbed it.

 

“Dad?”

 

Rick gripped the egg-shaped device tight, careful of the buttons. He'd already determined years ago that the fall had rendered it a useless piece of plastic, but that fear remained. As long as he kept it, the wound remained fresh.

 

“Yeah, Sweetie?”

 

“Everything okay? I half-expected explosions and stuff with you in here by yourself.”

 

“Have a little – urp – faith. Feeling better?”

 

“You know what, I am. Good enough that I wanted to take you up on that offer to watch some TV. Ball Fondlers?”

 

“Ball Fondlers! I just gotta throw something out and I'll be in.”

 

“Great.”

 

Rick hesitated before shoving the egg as deep in the trash out back as he could.

 

_We all fall down_  
_We live somehow_  
 _We learn what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger_

 

Inside, Beth and Morty were on the couch. Rick took his place at the end. The front door opened and Summer came in.

 

“Guess who's pregnant!”

 

“Oh, my God.” Beth said.

 

Morty squeaked out a, “What?!”

 

“Aw, shit.” Rick said.

 

Summer started grinning. “Psych! On all of you!”

 

Beth and Morty visibly relaxed while Rick cheered. “That's my girl! Come, sit next to Grandpa Rick!”

 

#_#_#

 

_24 years ago..._

 

Rick hadn't had to go to many intergalactic bars before realized that there were only so many types. The one he was in now reminded him of home. Except for all the nonhumans, of course.

 

Booze was decent and that was what counted. He was on his fifth shot of something that was grey when she approached him.

 

Pinkish skin with red freckles and bubblegum pink hair. “Hi. This is going to sound weird, but do I know you?”

 

Rick didn't recognize her and shook his head. “Probably seen me floating around places. There are tons of me everywhere, seems like. Can't go anywhere without tripping over five of me.”

 

She giggled and it struck a dead chord in him. An old memory. “Sounds great, actually. I would love for there to be so many of me.”

 

“It gets old...fast.”

 

“I'm Unity.”

 

No...

 

_'A united Diane.'_

 

Maybe it was possible. Even if it wasn't, she was cute. Rick swallowed. “Rick. Where you from?”

 

She shrugged. “Here. There. I'm a hive mind just starting out.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> The song is Sharp Edges by Linkin Park(RIP Chester). Hope you guys enjoyed and that the funny at least somewhat balanced out the depressing emotional stuff. 
> 
> Rick and Morty back tonight, Bitch!
> 
> Grass...tastes bad.
> 
> And, of course a great big Wub-a-lub-dub-dub to anyone that actually reads this steaming pile of shit!


End file.
